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| THANKOFFERING Day 
ViKARABAD 


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PRICE FOUR CENTS 


Woman's Foreign Missionary, Society 
Methodist Episcopal Church 
Publication Office. Boston, Mass. 


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THANK-OFFERING DAY | 
| IN VIKARABAD - 

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AST Sunday was a great day 

in Vikarabad. If you could 
| have seen the shining faces 
and heard the jubilant voices 
of the people as they left the 
church at dusk you would — 
have wondered whether it was a wedding, 
a Christmas tree or some other gala day. 
Had you inquired, even the youngest 
child would have told you joyfully that 
it was our annual Sunday School Thank- 
Offering Day, to which they look forward 
and for which they plan for weeks ahead. 

Last year we had the goal of Rs. 300 
($100) and raised Rs. 460. Each year 
we have been putting the goal forward a 
little. That is all right in good years, but 
in times like the present we moved it 
up to Rs. 500 with great trepidation. 
Our people are having a very hard time. 
Prices have gone up until now the ordi- 
nary foodstuffs are four or five times 


2 


what they should be. The wages and 
salaries, on the other hand, remain the 
same or, in the case of mission agents, 
have sometimes decreased on account of 
the low rate of exchange. Famine, pesti- 
lence and deadly fevers have stalked 
through the land throughout the past 
year. Even now cholera is in our midst, 
claiming its victims and casting a pall of 
sorrow and of extreme anxiety over us all 
the time. A mile away, plague and 
cholera are vying with each other in 
claiming as victims the people of that 
village. We missionaries have had to 
lay aside all other work, no matter how 
important, to fight disease away from our 
midst, and we could give very little help 
in planning and finding work for the 
children to do to earn money for the 
Thank-Offering. So the initiative came 
largely from the Indian people them- 
selves. 
The congregation did not wait that 
day for the second bell before they 
started to church. The place was soon 
packed with happy, eager folks who 
wanted to render thanks unto the Lord 
for all his benefits unto them. The order 
of the day is always the reports of the 
classes interspersed with some special 
music, recitations, etc. There are twenty- 
eight classes, so the program could not be 


3 


very long. The older girls sang in parts 
the English song, “He will hold me fast,”’ 
and it was beautiful. The primary class 
also sang in English as a solo and chorus, 
‘Jesus loves me, this I know,’ and 
brought much credit to their teacher. 
This primary class reported first, 
bringing their money and two kids. The 
two assistants had sewed, crocheted and 
given of their very meager pocket money, 
and the little tots had brought their 
coppers until they had a goodly sum. 
The money was put in the brass basin 
and the goats were tied to the altar rail, 
but being unaccustomed to such sur- 
roundings one kid began to bleat wildly 
and the other proceeded to chew the 
table cover. However, they were allowed 
to remain until the audience applauded 
some number. This scared the goats 
until they almost pulled the altar rail 
down; then they were tied over in the 
corner. Here, too, they made such a 
racket that finally, like Mary’s little 
lamb, they were entirely expelled. The 
next day they were sold for seven rupees. 
The boys’ school had earned some 
money by field work, while the girls 
and women had done a lot of sewing. The 
sewing machines must certainly have 
been glad when Sunday came, for day 
and night the women and older girls 


4 


kept them going, making shirts, children’s 
dresses, etc. For the work and thread on 
a man’s shirt they received nine cents, 
and half that for a child’s dress. So you 
see it takes several garments to make 
much of a gift for the Thank-Offering. 
But in this way they earned more than 
ten dollars. The girls did a lot of sewing 
for the hospital which brought them a 
little over five dollars. 

Masons and other workmen had been 
working two hours overtime each day 
and definitely pledging all that extra 
money to God. And not only did they 
' want to give liberally, but they talked 
Thank-Offering to every one and got even 
non-Christians eager to give. And our 
old bullock, that had for fifteen years 
carried the gospel messengers to all the 
villages around and was never known to 
shirk a load or have a bad habit, died a 
few days before and sent the price of his 
hide to help swell the fund. The working 
men’s class had the largest collection, 
about sixty-five rupees, and it repre- 
sented a great deal of self-denial. In fact, 
sacrifice was written in large letters on 
many of the gifts that day. 

The spirit of the giving was illustrated 
by a poor woman who works for her 
board. She is dressed in more ragged 
rags than you can imagine. She never 


5 


knows what it is to have a copper coin 
in her hands. But she went to her Sunday 
School teacher and said, ‘‘Amma, I want 
to give something to the collection. I 
have no money, but to-morrow is Sunday, 
so I shall not have to work hard. Please — 
take my allowance of grain and sell it and 
put the money in our class collection. I 
can do without food for one day.” I 
might add that, knowing nothing of the 
above, I called the woman and offered 
to pay her a day’s wage (three and a half 
cents) if she would stay with some chil- 
dren in the hospital that night, so she 
was able to give that money instead of 
her food. xe 

Another woman has recently passed 
through deep sorrow. Cholera attacked 
three of her children and she lost a lad of 
eleven years. But because the other two 
recovered she sent a month’s wage, 
although they are poor and have a large 
family. Last week Dr. Linn’s baby girl 
was desperately sick. For two days we 
feared for her life. The hospital servants 
and employees had a prayer meeting and 
‘promised Thank-Offerings if. the baby 
recovered. She got well and the people 
brought their tokens of gratitude. | 

Two of the special numbers on the 
program were solos by a visiting Indian 
brother. He had some sort of instrument 


6 


to accompany his singing, which resem- 
bled a fog horn more than anything else 
I can think of. When they turned it on it 
kept blowing the same tone with the 
same fierceness all the time, while the 
man in his weak way sang all around it, 
up and down, under and over, but was 
unable to faze its roar in the least. It 
certainly outdid anything I ever heard, 
but alittle of that kind goes a long 


way. 

After the classes had all reported there 
was an opportunity for others to put in 
their gifts and tell the cause of their grati- 
tude. One case that particularly touched 
me was that of a little boy who is just 
now convalescing from an attack of 
cholera. He begged an older boy to put 
two annas (three and one-half cents) in 
as his Thank-Offering, saying that just 
as soon as he is strong enough he will 
work hard and pay back the loan. A 
village woman brought a chicken which 
some one had sent because she had found 
a lost article. I had the savings bank of 
our grandmothers—an old teapot — 
full of papers and money. Much of its 
contents had been sent by those who were 
once in our Sunday School and although 
now far away they still wish to have a 
part with us. There were messages, 
money and pledges. Another gift was 


Vf 


that of four wooden country cots which 
ought to bring ten rupees, anyway. 

There is so much I cannot tell you all 
about it, but it was a wonderful time. 
And what about the total? Did we reach 
the goal? Yes, and much more, for the 
gifts that day amounted to more than 
Rs. 800 and others are still coming in. 
There will be at least Rs. 850 in the end. 
And the Indian people themselves gave 
about Rs. 600 of that amount. When the 
total was announced their joy knew no 
bounds and the only way their applause 
could be stopped was by starting the 
doxology. They joined in it heartily and 
as soon as the benediction had been said 
there was a jubilant roar of voices as each 
to the other expressed his joy over the 
result. 

And what do you suppose they were 
saying as they left the church? It was, 
“We must set the goal at Rs. 1000 next 
year!’? It seems an impossibility, but 
who would have believed that they could 
pass the goal this year? We shall see! 


